Artwork
Richard Pound
Robert Rauschenberg with Stripper (1962) in his Broadway studio, 1962. Photograph unattributed. Courtesy of Robert Rauschenberg Basis Archives, New York.
Robert Rauschenberg engaged on a portray on the deck of his Laika Lane studio, 1990. Photograph by Tup Schmidt. Courtesy of Robert Rauschenberg Basis Archives, New York.
Robert Rauschenberg, born 100 years in the past this yr, was one of many twentieth century’s most influential artists who, over the course of a 60-year profession, left his distinctive mark on many alternative media, together with portray, sculpture, printmaking, pictures, and efficiency. Not solely an essential precursor of Pop Artwork, he has been described as “a forerunner of basically each post-war motion since Summary Expressionism.”
Rauschenberg is finest recognized for his “Combines” (1954–64), which included parts of each portray and sculpture right into a single work. These pivotal experiments, made utilizing mundane discovered objects equivalent to newspaper clippings, images, bedspreads, cardboard, cloth, and rubber tires, are among the best artworks ever to discover the boundaries between artwork, widespread tradition, and the on a regular basis world.
In 2025, a number of main exhibitions will discover completely different points of his legacy. For instance, Hong Kong’s M+ Museum will take a complete have a look at Rauschenberg’s longstanding engagement with Asian tradition, whereas his collaborations with fellow artists might be examined in “5 Associates: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly” on the Museum Brandhost in Munich. Lastly, solo exhibits at Gladstone Gallery in New York and Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris can pay homage to his enduring significance (in Could and October, respectively). In the meantime, the 2025 version of miart, Milan’s worldwide artwork truthful, will undertake his life and works as its curatorial theme.
Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955–59. ©Robert Rauschenberg Basis.
Additionally a philanthropist and passionate advocate for social and political change, Rauschenberg established the Rauschenberg Basis in 1990 to help artists and establishments who share his inclusive, collaborative, and multidisciplinary method.
And his affect continues to be felt right this moment. As Julia Blaut, the Rauschenberg Basis’s senior director of curatorial affairs, identified, “In so many situations, artists right this moment acknowledge his priority, have run along with his instance, and have prolonged his concepts in fully unique and surprising instructions.…He at all times was and stays an artist’s artist.”
So, to assist rejoice what would have been Rauschenberg’s a hundredth birthday, right here’s an inventory of six up to date artists who share his pioneering spirit and modern use of supplies.
B. 1961, Los Angeles. Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Utilizing discovered objects and on a regular basis gadgets equivalent to maps, billboards, comedian books, and film posters, Mark Bradford creates monumental summary work which are each formally advanced and politically charged. First layering of paper, rope, and paint, Bradford then “excavates” the surfaces of his canvases utilizing instruments to disclose intersections of which means between the completely different supplies.
Immediately impressed by Rauschenberg’s “passionate, multifaceted, and plural” method, in addition to his activism, Bradford’s intricate and bold works are deeply rooted in sociopolitical points, addressing the exploitation of marginalized communities whereas additionally exploring the connection between excessive and low tradition.
Bradford obtained his BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1995 and 1997, respectively. He has exhibited extensively at among the most prestigious places on this planet and represented the U.S. on the Venice Biennale in 2017. He has obtained quite a few awards and honors, together with a 2009 MacArthur Fellowship and an appointment to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
B. 1973, New York. Lives and works in Brooklyn.
The work of Brooklyn-based artist Gedi Sibony occupies its personal distinctive area someplace between sculpture, assemblage, and set up. Utilizing discarded quotidian objects equivalent to cardboard, plastic sheeting, carpet, and wooden, he creates fragile works of poetic minimalism that reveal the expressive potential of the in any other case mundane supplies he has rescued from oblivion.
Sibony has cited Rauschenberg as a direct affect, describing the apply of selective appropriation in his “Combines” as “an enactment by the artist, achieved by way of whole immersion,” which is mirrored in his personal work.
Sibony graduated with an MFA from Columbia College in 2000, and his work has been exhibited in quite a few group and solo exhibits. His work is held within the collections of the Museum of Trendy Artwork and the Whitney Museum of American Artwork in New York, in addition to the San Francisco Museum of Trendy Artwork, amongst many different establishments.
B. 1966, Beijing. Lives and works in Beijing.
Reflecting his expertise rising up within the quickly altering tradition and society of latest China, Track Dong makes use of on a regular basis objects and ephemera to discover themes of impermanence, self-expression, and the transience of human endeavors.
The artist has acknowledged Rauschenberg’s pivotal 1985 exhibition in Beijing (the primary solo present in China by a up to date Western artist for the reason that Cultural Revolution) as a significant affect. Impressed by the American artist’s playful transformation of ephemeral objects into poetic works layered with which means and metaphor, Track Dong would then abandon portray in favor of sculpture, set up, video, and efficiency. These have included his beguiling assemblages of previous picket doorways, home windows, and mirrors, equivalent to Da Cheng Ruo Que Φ185 No.03 (2020–23).
Track studied superb arts at Beijing’s Capital Regular College, graduating in 1989. He has exhibited extensively for the reason that early Nineteen Nineties, together with main solo exhibits on the Barbican Centre in London, the Museum of Trendy Artwork in New York, and the Groninger Museum within the Netherlands.
B. 1959, Seattle. Lives and works in Nanaimo, Canada.
Considered some of the essential sculptors of her era, Jessica Stockholder makes use of store-bought and mass-produced objects to create vibrantly coloured large-scale sculptures and installations, which have been described as “work in area.” Meticulously organized, these three-dimensional compositions discover the pictorial potential of objects and surfaces, together with the bodily areas that encompass them.
Her daring mixture of portray and sculpture has led to frequent comparisons with Rauschenberg, and he or she has acknowledged his formative affect. Describing the affect of his “Combines,” particularly Monogram (1955–59), she not too long ago noticed that his “looking, dabbing gestures of idiosyncratic world-making…opened a door” for her personal work.
Stockholder obtained her MFA in portray and sculpture from Yale College in 1985. Her work is held in lots of worldwide collections, together with the Whitney Museum of American Artwork, the British Museum in London, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
B. 1966, New York. Lives and works in New York.
Flamboyant, irreverent, and peppered with each pop cultural and high-art references, the sculptures of Rachel Harrison juxtapose summary kinds with on a regular basis client merchandise, superstar imagery, and brightly painted family instruments. Typically displayed in multimedia installations alongside her images and drawings, her sculpture works create a wryly humorous dialogue between artwork historical past, up to date tradition, and politics.
Her multifaceted method and playful appropriation of the expendable detritus of American consumerism and widespread media bears apparent parallels with the work of Rauschenberg, and in 2015 the Cleveland Museum of Artwork exhibited their work collectively, inviting a direct comparability between the 2.
Harrison obtained a BA in superb artwork from Wesleyan College in 1989 and had her first solo present at New York’s Enviornment Gallery in 1996. At the moment her work could be present in quite a few main collections, together with the Museum of Trendy Artwork in New York, the Tate in London, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Backyard in Washington, D.C.
B. 1981, Kingston, Jamaica. Lives and works in Kingston and Chicago.
Spanning numerous media—together with tapestry, drawing, video, sculpture, pictures, and set up—the work of Ebony G. Patterson is each enchanting and colourful. Nevertheless, its floor magnificence and frequent references to artwork historical past, widespread tradition, and spiritual imagery masks darker themes together with postcolonial violence, gender inequality, and the objectification of the feminine physique.
Patterson’s densely layered tapestries, closely adorned with sequins, glitter, cloth, toys, costume jewellery, and pretend flowers, have a three-dimensional, virtually sculptural high quality that clearly recollects Rauschenberg’s “Combines.” The artist, who was featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2019, has spoken of the affect his monumental cloth collages had on her personal work, and in 2017 was an artist in residence on the Rauschenberg Basis.
Patterson obtained her MFA in printmaking and drawing from the Sam Fox Faculty of Design and Visible Arts in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2006. She has exhibited internationally and been the recipient of quite a few awards, together with a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship.
